Meet our Tasmanian State Rep

Hi everyone, my name is Kathleen Barrington (Kat) and I live in Hobart Tasmania. I’m a 29 year old wife to Laurence (35) who has type 1 OI and mother to Matilda (2) who also has type 1 OI. I work part time in an administration and accounts roll and I am also a volunteer Girl Guide leader for my region.

As OI runs in my husband’s family we knew there was always chance any children we had would have OI. Within saying that it runs in his family there is only 1 other family member, my father in law, who lives in Australia (TAS) with OI, the rest are in New Zealand.

Matilda was born without complications in March 2012 but from the moment she opened her eyes she has had the blue sclera and we figured it was just a matter of time before the breaking started. We made it a lot longer than we thought we would. A few months after Matilda started to walk (August 2013) she tripped on a blanket at care and fractured her tibia. She currently has her second fracture in her ulna (February 2014). Our Melbourne based geneticist doesn’t want to see us until number 3 occurs.

My husband has not had a break since he was 18 years old and is on no medication. The reason I have joined the OI Society and offered to be the state representative for Tasmania is so that I can have contact with people in the same boat as us, increase the awareness of OI in Tasmania and to connect with people in my community with OI (so far I am only aware of one other TAS member).

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Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a genetic disorder that causes a person's bones to break easily, often from little or no apparent trauma. OI is also called "brittle bone disease." OI varies in severity from person to person, ranging from a mild type to a severe type that causes death before or shortly after birth.